Updated
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A Lewis County man sent to prison last fall has died after sustaining serious injuries during an assault there.
Gordon C. Powell Jr., 45, was arrested in early October for breaking the glass front door at a distillery on North Tower Avenue and stealing four bottles of liquor and then hours later tussling with a police officer who tried to remove an extremely intoxicated beggar from an area store, according to court documents.
[1]Gordon “Casey” Powell Jr.
Powell was serving a five year sentence, for second-degree burglary and third-degree assault, at the Monroe Correctional Complex.
“I’m very disappointed,” his lawyer David Arcuri said upon hearing the news. “Gordon was not a violent person.”
Arcuri represented Powell in Lewis County Superior Court at least once, and likely other times over the years.
“He was a young man, and though he may have had issues that caused him to be taken out of society, it’s pretty sad he goes to DOC and ends up getting killed,” Arcuri said.
Court documents show Powell as transient, police reported he lived in Chehalis when he was arrested.
Prison officials say Powell was transported to the hospital on May 9 and passed away Monday morning.
He was being held at the Special Offender Unit at Monroe, according to the state Department of Corrections.
A 35-year-old fellow inmate doing time for first-degree manslaughter was being held in segregation and prison officials are working closely with local law enforcement who are investigating the incident, according to DOC.
The assault occurred in a common area, prison officials said.
The other inmate, Benjamin Price entered the prison system in August 2010 for the conviction out of Skagit County and was serving a sentence of just over 12 years. Price also had a prior conviction for second-degree assault with a firearm, according to the news release.
The (Everett) Herald [2] reports Price has a history of mental illness and is alleged to have waited for Powell while inmates were returning from the dining room, and kicked and stomped him during an attack that lasted nine seconds; Powell never regained consciousness.
Powell’s older sister said the Centralia native who went by the nickname Casey was a victim of the system.
“They knew he was mentally ill,” Stephanie Leisure said. “He should never have been put in prison, he should have been sent to Western State.”
At least twice before he’d been to the psychiatric hospital and found not competent to assist with his defense, according to Leisure.
He lived with her family in Centralia, she said.
“He was basically an outgoing, sweet guy,” she said. “Always smiling, always happy; he loved everybody.”
Her brother started showing signs of mental illness in his 20s, she said. He was being seen at a local clinic regularly before his arrest, she said.
“The police are always arresting him,” she said. “He does things he’s not supposed to do, but he’s still a really good kid; he couldn’t help it.”
Monroe’s Special Offender Unit was opened in 1981 to provide a facility to treat and house the many seriously mentally ill offenders, according to DOC spokesperson Andrew Garber.